With ‘Roots of Unity,’ Avoca celebrates its diversity

Every year, the Avoca School District 37 community comes together to celebrate its diversity, and that tradition continued on Friday evening, Dec. 13, with the ninth Intercultural Dinner and Talent Show.

The annual event, which was held at Marie Murphy School in Wilmette, features a dinner in the gymnasium featuring foods from countries around the world, such as India, South Africa, China, Japan, Serbia, Greece and more.

Immediately following the dinner, students took the stage in the school’s multi-purpose room and performed in a talent show. The performances represented the diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds of the district’s student body and included musical acts, a martial arts routine, and Bollywood and Reggaeton dances.

The night culminated in a fashion show during which students wore traditional outfits from countries around the world, shared facts and displayed their country’s flags.

Avoca D37 is reportedly the most diverse of New Trier High School’s six feeder districts. According to 2024 data from the Illinois Report Card, D37’s student body is 52% white, 24.4% Asian, 12.5% Hispanic, and 9.8% two or more races.

Ami Das, an Intercultural Dinner organizer and member of the D37 Board of Education, said more than 20 countries were represented this year, and 418 guests pre-registered, with more showing up and paying at the door.

This year’s theme was Roots of Unity, and Das said it was chosen because of division within the community related to the district’s failed referendum that was held in the spring.

“Our community was divided, and that’s OK,” Das said. “Sometimes a community is divided in their thoughts. But this is what our community is; we come together and we participate in these events and we center ourselves around our children. So the Roots of Unity kind of put that together.”

“I think this is a healing moment for our community, so we can all come together,” she added.

D37 Superintendent Dr. Sandra Arreguín told the audience that Intercultural Dinner is an important way of recognizing the diverse student body of the district.

“This night is the embodiment of our mission to nurture diversity,” she said. “And what I love most is that we do this together as a family.”

Arreguín shared a personal story from her childhood on why it’s important for schools like Avoca West and Marie Murphy to celebrate and acknowledge diversity. She said that when she was growing up, “I was racially and ethnically in the minority at my school. It was a beautiful school, yet I didn’t always feel a part of it.”

She said one day when her principal was making the morning announcements, she was sitting at her desk with her arms crossed and her head resting on them, but then the principal mentioned that it was a special day for Mexican families.

Immediately, Arreguín recalled, “I perked up by lifting up my head, straightening my back and sitting up. Even as I picture this today, I can see that I was literally holding my head up high.”

That “small gesture from my principal” had an impact on Arreguín, “because it said, ‘I see you. I know you are here, and I know you exist.’”

“When we talk about belonging, a simple act like this is the initiation,” she said. “That announcement on that day made me feel more than belonging. It made me feel loved.”

She said that she hopes that D37’s students feel the same way she felt when her culture was acknowledged by her principal.

“Our students are standing up here with their heads held up high times 100,” Arreguín said. “And we are saying to them, ‘We see you, we know you are here, we know you exist, and we love you.’”

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